Bellingham's central waterfront is in a state of transition from its long history as an active industrial site to a new mixed use neighborhood. In 2001, Georgia Pacific shut down its Bellingham pulp mill causing over 1000 people to lose family-wage jobs. GP explored options to fund the required environmental clean-up to market the property for private development, but the cost of clean-up and the required infrastructure investment made it difficult to attract private investors. In a effort to rebuild the waterfront economy, the Port purchased the GP property in 2005 after extensive community outreach and partnership commitments from the City and Washington State Department of Ecology to make the long-term public investments necessary to implement the community's vision on the central waterfront.